On 26 February 2022, police in Belgorod detained RFE/RL correspondent Sergey Khazov-Kassia and Novaya Gazeta correspondents Ilya Azar and Ivan Zhilin. Belgorod is a major Russian city located less than 50 km from the Ukrainian border. The three journalists were detained while interviewing a Belgorod local who was standing alone in a public space with an anti-war poster. The arrests came as Russian internet regulator and censor Roskomnadzor demanded Russian media write about the war only “based on official Russian sources”. Khazov-Kassia, Azar and Zhilin were released soon after their detention. On 24 February, RFE/RL correspondents Ivan Voronin, Artem Radygin and Nikita Tatarsky were detained while reporting from an anti-war protest in Moscow.